When the Cat's Away
by NachtaraPowers
Summary: Sometimes the daily grind of taking over the world needs shaking up, and Valon poses a provocative suggestion one night when he and Alistair are alone at headquarters. " Sacrificeshipping Oneshot.


Alistair hated Valon, truly. He hated his big mouth, how he was always blundering around yelling about something in his obnoxious accent, his immaturity, and his stupidity. Still, five years of working and living virtually on top of someone makes harboring resentment impractical, so Alistair had no choice but to put up with him.

Valon noticed none of this. He was easy-going enough that he backed away when Alistair was in one of his moods and joked around when the redhead seemed up to it.

While they were at their home base, each of Dartz's three Orichalcos warriors had his own room. Both Valon's and Rafael's were relatively bare, though Valon had acquired several posters of scantily-clad girls, but Alistair's was wallpapered practically floor to ceiling with pictures of and newspaper clippings relating to Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corporation.

"It's creepy," Valon commented to Rafael once. "All those pictures of Kaiba sneerin' down at you all day; I'd go a touch funny too. What's his deal with Kaiba, anyway?"

Rafael had shrugged. "That's none of our business." Truthfully, Rafael had no idea why it was that their colleague was so obsessed with Kaiba, but any time the champion duelist was even alluded to in conversation, Alistair would go on long tirades about what an arrogant bastard the CEO was. At first Valon had found the redhead's venom towards Kaiba jarring, but after a few months he'd learned to ignore it as Rafael did, and the two strove to avoid talking about anything that could possibly set Alistair off on one of his rants. This proved very difficult given that Alistair seemingly had a one-track mind, so often they avoided talking to him altogether. For his part, Alistair didn't care. It meant nothing to him if his colleagues understood his obsession or not, and frankly, he preferred having them avoid him.

Sometimes though, when Dartz sent them out on a team mission, they had no choice but to put up with each other. On such occasions they'd draw straws to see who had to share a room, but Alistair would always pitch such a fit if he had to share with Valon that Rafael often gave in. There were exceptions, however. For the most part Rafael was level-headed and even-tempered, but when either Alistair or Valon got under his skin enough he wasn't afraid to pull rank and shut them down. Because he was older and much bigger and stronger than either of the other two, they always did what he said in the end even if they argued against his judgment to save face.

One such occasion was during an extended mission to Domino three months before the group would steal Yugi Mouto's Egyptian God cards and a little under a year since Mai Valentine had joined DOMA.

They'd been staying at an apartment complex located a mere seven blocks from Yugi's grandfather's game shop and despite ultimately having their own objectives, the three were responsible for running surveillance on Yugi together. After receiving word from Dartz to check on one of their boss' other lackeys, Rafael had left Valon and Alistair alone in the tiny apartment for the night.

"This is right borin'," Valon complained, feigning a yawn as Yugi changed into a pair of light blue pajamas on a screen taking up half the living-room wall.

"Give it a rest, Valon," Alistair muttered, his gaze straying from the larger monitor to his laptop which was currently streaming the footage from the security camera in Seto Kaiba's office. The CEO was staring fixedly at his PC, obviously reading something.

Valon was able to maintain a stoic silence for all of two minutes.

"Oh come on; he's gone to bed; why can't we take a break, eh? He's not gonna give up anythin' in his sleep."

"Shut _up_ , Valon." Kaiba had received a phone call and Alistair leaned in closer to his laptop screen after zooming in as tight as he could on the champion duelist's face.

"He's not even doin' anythin' interestin'," Valon pointed out, now referring to Kaiba.

"Go away if you're going to stand there bothering me," Alistair snapped without looking up.

"Don't gotta tell me twice," Valon replied quietly, rising from a padded desk chair and stretching. In the reflection in the screen, Alistair couldn't help but notice that the Australian's black muscle shirt had ridden up enough to expose a sliver of his defined abs. Just as quickly, the redhead refocused his attention on Kaiba who was still talking on the phone.

"At least he's not ugly."

"What?" Alistair turned around at the random remark as though facing Valon would help make sense of it.

"Kaiba," Valon elaborated, pointing unnecessarily. "At least he's not ugly."

Alistair crinkled his eyebrows in confusion."What's that got to do with anything?"

"Just, you look at him so much it'd suck if he were some wrinkly old guy. At least this way even if he is a horrible prick he isn't hard on the eyes."

Alistair shrugged. "Who cares? It doesn't matter what he looks like."

"Ok, but what if he were like, a really hot girl?"

Alistair rolled his eyes. Sooner or later every conversation with Valon became about girls.

"That wouldn't matter either; I'd still have to take his, her, soul."

"Yeah, but then you might be able to get it in first." Valon pumped his hips suggestively and laughed.

"Is sex _all_ you think about?"

"Is Kaiba all _you_ think about?" Valon countered. "Although maybe for you that's the same thing," he mused, eying his co-worker. Every once in awhile, usually when Mai wasn't around, Valon found himself wondering about Alistair.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The implication of Valon's statement took Alistair aback, but he felt the need to hide it, though the truth was that he'd never thought about sexuality before. Who had time for that when they all had missions to focus on?

"I'm just curious is all," Valon shrugged. "I'm definitely into girls: I wank off thinking about girls, I like sleeping with girls, I want to date girls. And Rafael is into girls too I'm pretty sure, but I don't know about you. You look right girly, so I always assumed you were into blokes, but you don't do nothin' with them either, far as I know. You just do what Dartz tells us to and in your free time you obsess over Kaiba. So what, are you 'Kaiba-sexual?'" Valon chuckled at his own joke.

"That's the stupidest thing I think I've ever heard," Alistair scoffed, crossing his arms. 'Kaiba-sexual;' how absurd.

"So what's your deal then?"

Alistair narrowed his eyes. "It's none of your business. Go to the bedroom, fap over Mai Valentine's tits, and leave me _alone_."

"Mai's not here though, is she?"

"Are you deaf? I said _fap_ over her, not fuck her. Or don't; I don't care. Just go away." Alistair turned back around.

Far from being perturbed, Valon grinned, an idea forming in his mind as he took in the willowy lines of Alistair's body. "You know," he said slowly, "you'd make a pretty girl, Aly."

Alistair looked up sharply from his intense scrutiny of Kaiba drinking coffee, suddenly on edge. That Valon would even joke about viewing him the same way he viewed Mai Valentine made him distinctly uncomfortable.

"Shut up, Valon," he snarled, wishing he was wearing something over his midriff exposing top.

"Oh, come on," Valon said cajolingly, resting against the doorframe. "I promise I'd make it worth your while. It'd at least be more interestin' than starin' at Kaiba all night."

"No." Alistair's voice was firm, but at Valon's words he felt warmth beginning to coil in his lower abdomen.

"Go on then," Valon pressed, taking a step closer to his temperamental colleague. He almost added: 'just pretend I'm Kaiba' but decided that might be pushing it.

"I said no." Alistair's voice held a trace of something closer to confusion than conviction, and like a bloodhound, Valon picked up on it.

"We don't gotta do anythin' you're not completely comfortable with," he promised, closing the small amount of distance between them and resting his hands on Alistair's shoulders, looking earnestly into his exotic gray eyes and gently kneading the redhead's tense shoulder blades.

The situation was so far outside of Alistair's frame of reference he had no idea how to handle it. Being touched that way by Valon should have repulsed him, and yet...

"Come on, yeah?" Valon said softly, still massaging Alistair's shoulders. In a trance-like state, Alistair found himself rising from his chair, Valon's hands leaving his shoulders and ghosting along his sides, giving him goose bumps, the warmth in his stomach sinking lower, lower…

Once they were both seated on the edge of Alistair's bed, Valon said:

"To be clear: I'm not into blokes, alright?"

Alistair snorted derisively and rolled his eyes. "Whatever." There was another moment's hesitation, then Valon reached out and lightly ran his fingertips along the curve of Alistair's cheek, causing Alistair to start to shy away instinctively, but then Valon leaned in and tentatively pressed their lips together, his arms winding around Alistair's thin torso.

Alistair had never been kissed before and as a result he found it strange and awkward and couldn't understand why anyone would want to do it. Even stranger was having Valon stick his tongue in his mouth.

 _Come on_ , Valon thought, beginning to push Alistair onto his back. _Work with me, Aly…_ Finally, Alistair started to get the hang of it and was able to kiss Valon back, uncertainly wrapping his arms around him and pulling him closer as the Australian lowered himself on top of him.

Valon reached down and stroked Alistair's thigh through his worn jeans. The redhead's legs were muscular, but thin and shapely enough that he could still pretend they were _hers_.

Alistair, though he'd been extremely wary of Valon's advances at first, quickly found himself closing his eyes and giving into the situation, after all, Valon was hardly _hurting_ him. Valon's mouth left his and found its way to the hollow at the base of Alistair's throat, causing Alistair to grip him more tightly and moan softly, unconsciously bucking against the man on top of him. Pleased, Valon reached between them and guided Alistair's hand to the bulge in his pants. Alistair froze when his hand connected with Valon's jean-covered erection, suddenly aware that he would be expected to allow Valon to fuck him with it. Instead of disgusting him, the thought was unexpectedly exciting and after a moment more of hesitation, Alistair started clumsily palming him.

Had Alistair been a girl, Valon would have been sucking on her tits by now, but instead he contented himself with roughly kissing him while Alistair felt him up.

Alistair had no sexual experience to speak of, but he knew enough, either from movies or out of some primal instinct, to know that Valon would want him to go down on him. Again, had anyone ever asked him, Alistair would have said that the thought of having Valon's cock in his mouth was disgusting, but with the muscular Australian pressed against him he wasn't remotely repulsed.

He unbuttoned Valon's jeans and slid them partway down his hips.

"Tha's right," Valon murmured as Alistair started stroking him uncertainly after pulling his underwear down.

Valon got up abruptly to kick his pants completely off, proud of the coy expression on Alistair's normally stony face.

Crawling to the edge of the bed, Alistair hesitated, but with Valon's encouragement he slowly and carefully took him into his mouth.

"Oh, fuck yeah," Valon moaned, grabbing a hank of Alistair's silky hair.

Alistair gagged and wasn't sure how he felt about Valon pulling his hair, but he had to admit that he liked having this unexpected power over him. He therefore treated it like a game; each moan he drew from Valon's throat was retribution for all the times he'd ever annoyed Alistair with his talk of Mai Valentine.

"Hey, hey, ease up, yeah?" Valon said softly, and Alistair stopped, wiping spit off his chin with the back of his hand. "Ok, now get on your stomach." That, Alistair wasn't so sure about. Seeing the redhead's hesitation, Valon, feeling oddly tender, reached out and touched his face. "Hey, it's all right." It hadn't occurred to him that Alistair might be a virgin, but then, that made sense, he supposed. When would he have done it? He spent all his energy following their master's orders and spying on Kaiba, leaving no time for sex.

Alistair studied Valon's open expression distrustfully. What was he hoping to gain from this? He wanted a substitute for Mai, that was clear. But was that all? Was he hoping to use this situation to somehow embarrass or harass him later? Probably not, he decided finally. Annoying and immature and loud he might be, but the Australian wasn't devious. Valon just wanted to have sex, and, apparently (and unexpectedly), so did he.

Alistair warily rolled onto his stomach and pressed his face sideways against the mattress as Valon pulled his black muscle shirt over his head, shaking his unruly brown hair out. Despite being the one still fully clothed, Alistair felt extremely exposed and vulnerable.

Valon fished in his pocket for his wallet and removed one of two condoms he always kept there just in case, set it aside, and returned to his place beside Alistair on the bed, reaching around the redhead's waist to undo his jeans.

"Relax," he said soothingly when he felt how tense Alistair was, surprised by his own gentleness, especially considering that he'd stopped trying to pretend that the person lying beside him was Mai. Alistair said nothing, but allowed Valon to pull his pants down. A traitorous part of himself chose to trust his colleague, and so he followed Valon's advice and tried to relax, even tilting his hips up slightly.

Part of what was going to allow Valon to have sex with Alistair at all was ignoring the fact that Alistair, however pretty, was a man. Still, he felt bad that that meant there wasn't much he could do to ensure the experience would be a good one for the redhead too. But Alistair looked so apprehensive, his normally hard expression softened by fear, that Valon impulsively worked his arms around the redhead's torso and pulled him into a sitting position so that Alistair's back rested against his chest.

Being held felt strange. At first, Alistair thought it was because it was Valon - someone he didn't even like. But as the warmth of the Australian's body began to seep into him through his back, and he turned his head so that he could feel Valon's mouth on his again, he realized the feeling had very little to do with Valon, and much to do with how long it had been since anyone had touched him more than just in the passing way that strangers' shoulders brush against each other in tight quarters. The realization caused a cold shiver of melancholy to flutter in his chest.

Valon had never seen Alistair so unguarded before, and when the redhead briefly twined their hands together before turning to fully straddle him as they kissed, he felt a surge of affection towards him. He'd always admired Alistair's unflinching ability to focus and his talent for just about everything. Alistair was the best with computers, the best pilot, the best at strategizing before missions. He wasn't the best duelist, which Valon knew frustrated him to no end, but to compensate for his lack of natural talent, Alistair practiced at least three hours a day with different decks, using different strategies-all with the ultimate aim of defeating Seto Kaiba, and helping capture weaker souls in the process. But he never seemed happy. Even though Raphael was hardly brimming with joy, Valon had at least seen him crack a smile every now and again, particularly when he took a moment to look through his cards, and Valon himself was almost never anything but at least cheerful. But Alistair never even seemed content, let alone cheerful. He was moody when he wasn't doing something, which was hardly ever the case, and he angered easily over what Valon considered arbitrary things. And he was guarded. Perhaps that most of all. Even after four years, Valon knew next to nothing about him. He didn't know why Alistair had decided to work for Dartz, how long he'd been working for him, what drove him to work so hard, why he was obsessed with Kaiba-he didn't even know Alistair's last name. But tonight for some reason, Alistair had chosen to partially let his guard down.

Valon felt Alistair tentatively work his slim fingers into the hair at the base of his neck and in response, gently caressed the redhead's back, feeling the muscles tense and relax under his hands. To his infinite surprise, he discovered that touching Alistair turned him on, that the weight of the redhead sitting in his lap and the slight friction created by their bodies moving against each other made him hard-never mind that the friction was making Alistair hard too. He felt that: the taught hardness of a man's body pressed against his and the slight roughness of a man's jaw against his, but it didn't matter. He wanted him. Perhaps he always had, secretly, mistaking his lust as the result of not having a woman to sleep with and the result of Mai rejecting him over and over again.

He lowered them onto the bed, habitually running his hands up Alistair's chest only to remember that there was nothing there, then trailing his hand downward and palming Alistair through his underwear instead.

Alistair arched and sighed, his mind oddly blank. He knew nothing except that he wanted Valon as close to him as possible. " _Unnn_ ," he groaned as Valon's tongue painted trails of liquid fire along his neck and shoulder, his fingers gripping onto the Australian's hips.

"We should've done this ages ago," Valon murmured against Alistair's ear before gently kissing the sensitive skin just beneath it as he worked his fingertips under the waistband of the redhead's boxer briefs.

"Wait," Alistair panted, staying Valon's hand. Everything was happening so fast it was almost making him dizzy. "I…" He frowned even as he felt his face flush in embarrassment. "I've never done this before so…"

"Are you blushin'?" Valon teased, reaching out and running his thumb briefly across his colleague's cheekbone, his soft laugh causing Alistair to blush even harder.

"Nevermind." He slapped Valon's hand away and started to sit up, more than ready to return to watching Kaiba in order to save face.

"Hey, hey, sorry I laughed at 'cha." Valon rested his hand lightly on Alistair's shoulder. "I was only teasin'. And don't worry: I'll go slow, I promise. Fact is: I've never done this before either. I've had sex before," he added quickly. "Just not with a bloke."

"Then do you even know what you're doing?"

"Having a bit of fun, I know that much. You too, eh?" He ghosted his hand along Alistair's ribcage, causing him to shy away. "You can trust me, Aly, I promise. I'm not gonna hurt ya."

"Don't call me that," Alistair snapped even as he allowed his body to relax. He was very tempted to believe what Valon was saying. But he also wasn't, more so because he didn't want to than because he was disinclined to. He and Valon had worked numerous jobs together in the past, and though their loyalty towards each other had never been tested in any kind of significant way, the Australian had never betrayed him outright. But was he just considering allowing Valon in because he was already worked up? Would he regret it immediately afterwards? But why? It was just sex, something that meant very little to him. It was something people did to relieve stress, for fun, and to make babies. The latter had nothing to do with him, but he _was_ stressed, and who knew, maybe it would be fun.

Without changing his suspicious expression, Alistair climbed back into Valon's lap only to push him backwards onto the bed. Valon grunted in surprise but wasted no time in tugging Alistair's underwear down over the slight curves of his ass and fastening a strong grip on his skin while his colleague tried his hand at sucking roughly on various parts of his neck while at the same time rubbing unconsciously against him.

At this point neither man knew how best to proceed with the encounter. They both knew what went where, in principle, but not the how. Alistair would have been perfectly content to have Valon go down on him but wasn't sure Valon would want to, and Valon was inclined to roll on a condom and just slide it in like he'd done on a multitude of occasions with a plethora of different girls, but knew there was more to it than that. He reached one hand up and made sure he had Alistair's full attention before sensually sucking on his own fingers while Alistair watched uncertainly. But when the Australian rubbed him with the wet tip of his pointer finger, all thoughts were reduced to one feeling: primal pleasure. He shuddered and moaned and pressed unabashedly against Valon's fingers until Valon pressed first one, then two into him, causing Alistair to cling to his shoulders and press his forehead against his collarbone. Without thinking, Alistair reached down and began jerking himself off between their bodies as the adrenaline and pleasure built to a crescendo in his lower stomach.

And the whole time Valon was watching him. Watching as Alistair relinquished the control he prized so highly, watched as his silver eyes misted over so that even though they were looking at each other (when Alistair wasn't pressing his face against his chest) Valon knew Alistair wasn't really seeing him. He listened as Alistair sighed and moaned, and took pleasure in how he made him arch. As he scissored his fingers inside Alistair's body and felt the occasional jolts of the other man bumping into or rubbing against his cock, Valon eagerly geared himself up for finding his own gratification. But just as he was preparing to roll Alistair off of him and onto his stomach, Alistair groaned and his body spasmed and Valon felt his warm cum slick onto his stomach before the redhead collapsed against him, breathing hard.

"Sorry," he panted.

Though initially exasperated, the mortified expression on Alistair's face made Valon smile sympathetically.

"What're you apologizing for?" he asked, readjusting their position so that he could lean back against the pillow while Alistair lay half on top of him. Had it not been Alistair's first time, Valon would have expected to be finished off anyway, but seeing as his colleague had been a virgin he thought it might be inconsiderate to ask.

"I didn't mean to," Alistair mumbled, avoiding Valon's eyes.

"It doesn't matter. You'll get better at it," he added encouragingly but Alistair only rolled off him and onto his side, hoping by putting his back to him he could maintain some level of dignity.

Valon chose to give Alistair a moment to compose himself and slid off the bed and headed to the bathroom to wipe the cum off his stomach.

While Valon was in the bathroom, Alistair sat up and pulled his underwear and jeans back on as though the extra layer of clothing could shield his bruised ego.

"What'cha put your clothes back on for?" Valon asked after returning to the bedroom. Alistair looked at him uncomprehendingly. "I mean, don't 'cha wanna, I dunno, cuddle or somethin'?" When Alistair continued to look nonplussed, he added: "tha's usually what people do after they have sex."

"No?" Alistair responded, looking slightly repulsed.

"No, you don't think tha's what people do, or no, you don't want to?"

"What do you think?"

"Why not?" Valon asked curiously, sitting beside him. "It's kinda nice." He laid his hand on Alistair's knee and squeezed gently.

"I have to get back to work." Alistair stood abruptly, causing Valon's hand to slide off his leg. "And you should too. Besides, Raphael will be back soon with more intel."

"Come home and go to bed is more like it," Valon scoffed. "When has he ever shared any of his 'intel' with _us_ if he didn't have to? S'no secret he wants the pharaoh all to himself."

"Yeah, well, do whatever you want then. _I'll_ get back to work."

"Go ogle Kaiba some more, you mean," Valon snorted as Alistair reached the doorway, and the redhead flipped him off over his shoulder. "Hey, seriously though: we should try this again sometime. Whaddya say?"

"If you spent half as much time doing your job as you did thinking about sex, we'd have completed our mission years ago."

"Is that a yes?" Valon pressed hopefully.

"Ugh! You're impossible!" Alistair snapped as he made his way back to his laptop.

"Definitely a yes."

* * *

Author's Note: After a loooong hiatus, I'm back in the fanfic-writing saddle. I've never written Sacrificeshipping before, but I actually rather like it.


End file.
